(March 28, 2013 at 10:36 pm)jstrodel Wrote: Prove that it is a fallacy to say "My doctor told me cigarettes cause cancer so based only on this, it is likely that cigarettes cause cancer". Where does fallacious reasoning enter that?
The fallacious reasoning is that you are basing the claim that cigarettes cause cancer solely on the fact that the doctor stated it. Change the sentence to "My doctor told me prayers cause cancer so based only on this, it is likely that prayers cause cancer." Do you accept his claim? After all, you accepted his claim regarding cigarettes based, not on any other information or studies or research, but entirely on the claim itself.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
